Advice My 10-Year-Old Self Would Give Me

Some variation of the question, "What would my 80-year-old self tell me to do?" has been in the zeitgeist for a while ( @lovingkindnesscomedy has a good one today), with the implicit assumption that our elder selves are wiser than our current, apparently naïve existences.

Perhaps that will turn out to be true, and it is an interesting exercise, but I think our younger selves - particularly our exuberant 10-year-old selves - can also tell us a lot about how we should live our lives today.

Furthermore, here is a question I'm pondering: Would my 10-year-old self even recognize (or approve of) the person I've become?

1. Ride your bicycle everywhere.

2. Once work is done, go outside to run and play.

3. Girls are cute and mean and fun and are great to tease and like to play games and smell good. So go be friends with more of them.

4. Sleep in as much as possible.

5. Hang out with your friends as much as you can.

6. Stop feeling frustrated and stuck. Just ask an adult to help.

7. Cheating is bad.

8. Daydreaming is the greatest thing ever.

9. Doing dumb things might get you hurt sometimes, but it is a great way to figure out what you like to do.

10. It's okay to skip school once in a while.